The Incarnation of Jesus is so crucial. Jesus is God’s love made manifest to the world! For this reason, St. Francis of Assisi saw Christmas as the highest of the feast days! When he made his conversion, God started to work in him in new and beautiful ways and right at the heart of it was Jesus coming as man. St. Francis was so touched by the humility of Jesus in coming like one of us that he set up the first nativity scene. He reasoned that it would move people’s hearts to see this with their own eyes. He set up a live nativity scene.
Blessed John Duns Scotus, a 13th century Franciscan philosopher, was convinced that love is central and that even if man had never sinned, God the Father still would have sent Jesus to manifest the Father’s love for us. So, Jesus coming to reveal the love of the Father is the reason for the season of Christmas. It’s fundamentally important for us to not just know what we’re doing, but why we’re doing what we’re doing. Looking at why the Father sent Jesus is just as important. When we understand God’s purpose in sending Jesus, we gain critical insight into the Father and the Son and who we are to them and who they are to us.
Christmas has become so secularized, but Christmas is really about God’s love. Yes, Jesus came to save us from our sin, but the reason WHY is because of God’s deep and intimate love for each one of us. All of creation is born out of the love of God! Jesus does save us from our sin, but the fact that He came out of the depth of His saves us from the attraction to sin…His love is so much more attractive! Jesus opens up the life of the Father and work of the Spirit and the life of the Holy Trinity. Out of that intimacy revealed in the Incarnation of Jesus a life of holiness flows and is the transformative power of our lives. Cooperating with – receiving and responding to His love – is the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand!
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